I recently attended a retreat with the purpose of discussing the book Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Gieger and the book Gen Z by James Emery White. Simple Church is a book written many years ago that revolutionized many American churches. Gen Z was a book that once I started reading, I could not put down.
Retreats are good for anyone, but especially ministers. If you are a ministry leader, make sure you make time to schedule a spiritual retreat on a regular basis. Retreats should be restful but also prayer-full. You should walk away from a retreat with new insights and renewed devotion. Below was my takeaway!
Having focused so much on discipleship as of late, it was a breath of fresh air to be reminded of the missional movement that took place before the big push on the importance of having Discipleship Groups. I want to thank Robby Gallaty and his Replicate Ministries Team for highlighting the need for D-Groups in local churches. No doubt, the church needs to be making disciples! But my retreat takeaway was the reminder that local churches also need to be making missionaries! It is not either/or, but both/and. Every member needs to be a disciple-maker and every member needs to be a missionary. No matter your location or vocation, you are a missionary. But you are a disciple-maker too! Let’s not talk about one without the other. This insight was confirmed to me when I got home and read the postscript (written 5 years after the book was released) of Simple Church:
“They (simple churches) seek to move people to a place of living a missional life. Discipleship to these churches is not information, but transformation. And a true disciple is someone who seeks to transform the community around him. A disciple understands he is a missionary. These churches streamline their programming to create space in the lives of their people to live as a disciple/missionary in their community.”
Well put Thom! Let’s be missional, but let’s also make disciples. Another takeaway from Simple Church that I walked away with was the need for one-word church vision statements. Members can remember one word statements better than they can remember two! Your vision statement can and should be aligned for all ministries in your church, including your next generation ministry!
And catch this! Don’t get so tied up in the process that you miss the people. If a person comes to your church out of order, who cares? In the culture we live in, getting a person to come to church on any day/night of the week is a win! Having a discipleship process is important, but it is not more important than the people who the process was created for. We desire for people to follow the steps, but if they don’t, I’m just happy they came!